CDC shortens COVID-19 isolation, quarantine period; triggers memefest

Amid the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently reviewed its COVID-19 policies and adjusted some recommendations. According to Sputnik, the health agency shortened the isolation period for people infected with COVID-19 from 10 to five days if they show no symptoms. The CDC renewed mask rules and additionally also lowered the number of people who received at least one vaccine dose from 99.5 to 95%. 

Now, the new rules and CDC’s updates have triggered an online tease. Several Twitter users mocked CDC’s bewildering updates and posted parody advice. “CDC now recommends…” started trending on the microblogging website, with users offering to do obvious or weird things. “CDC recommends applying leeches directly to the parts of you that have Covid,” wrote one user. “The CDC just announced you can walk right up to bin of carrots at the grocery store and start eating outta there like a horse,” said another. 

New CDC guidelines 

Meanwhile, it is to mention that according to new rules, people who are unvaccinated or are more than six months out from their second mRNA dose, or additionally those whose post-vaccine period has gone beyond two months after the J&J vaccine, and are not yet boosted are required to quarantine for five days. A strict use of mask for an additional five days is needed. Although for those who have had their booster shots, the quarantine has not been mandated following an exposure, CDC said as the risk for such individuals to transmit the virus is low. 

However, those who have taken the booster dose are required to wear a mask for 10 days after the exposure to the COVID-19 positive case. However, if symptoms occur for the boosted individuals after coming in contact with a COVID-19-positive diagnosed person, they are required to immediately quarantine until a negative test confirms symptoms are not attributable to COVID-19, said CDC. Earlier, a CDC report revealed that the two-dose regime of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines is only 35% effective against the highly mutated Omicron variant of concern, but a booster dose increases protection to 75%.   

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